


Insomnia's Little Wonders

by ZipperNova



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daycare, F/F, I don't know how detailed the mpreg will be, I don't know if there will be any sexy times either. We'll get there when we get there, M/M, Might just be mentioned or implied, Mpreg, Slice of Life, adoption mentioned, slowburn?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26010907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZipperNova/pseuds/ZipperNova
Summary: Ignis works at a daycare, Gladio's daughter attends this daycare, predictable romance ensues. Featuring probably the entire XV cast.Irregular updates, tags updated as we go, current tags are a vague understanding of where we will go. Title is pending and may change in the future.
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia/Ignis Scientia, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret/Aranea Highwind, Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

Most people who met Ignis for the first time would not place him as a daycare worker. Someone with such a serious demeanor and natural resting bitch face, couldn't possibly work with kids for a living. While their initial impression was very accurate, such characteristics became nonexistent once his day at the childcare center started.

Ignis loved kids, and he loved his room full of kids the most. He was the assistant teacher of a room of babies ranging from six to twelve months in age. He loved getting to help and watch them hit their developmental milestones. Ignis loved knowing that he was able to help the children in his care by simply giving them the love, support, and courage they need at such a young and impactful age.

Yes, there were stressful days, days where he had no bibs and the daycare decided to have the messiest foods imaginable on the menu. Days where Pelna wouldn't stop crying unless he was being held. Days where Crowe continuously steals all the other kids’ pacifiers and runs away with them, or slaps everyone in the head or pushes them constantly. But there were also good days. Days where everyone seems exceptionally happy. Days where he can get almost every baby down for a nap at the same time. Days where, even though he has eight kids in the room, it's exceptionally quiet as they play with their toys and entertain themselves. Ignis often found himself thinking about how he could never really hate going into work. Sure the end of one day might be more stressful than another, but the rarity of those days versus the amount of good days made it completely worth while in his opinion.

Ignis was also grateful the parents of all his kids were relatively nice and happy. There was the grandmother of Crowe however that gave off a bit of an entitled air, but she didn't drop Crowe off or pick her up too terribly often so Ignis just dealt with it as it came. Quickly and efficiently. There was one parent in particular that managed to catch Ignis’ eye however. Not the one with a Tenebrean accent like himself, no. This parent had actually caught his eye a few weeks prior, during a tour of the facility to the considering man.

“Here is the Chocobo room, it's a no shoes room like the Moogle and Cactuar rooms. Just so we can keep the floors clean for those that aren't walking yet. This one is our 6 month to 12 month room, though when it comes to moving up, when they're under the age of 2 our advancement is more based on developmental progress than age. That way we don't move up a 12 month old who isn't walking very well and they don't get run over by the other kids.”

“Right, right.” The man had agreed. Ignis had yet to turn around to see the potentially new client, he was busy wiping off the strawberry and chocolate pudding covered face of Nyx. Said child fighting it of course.

“I was going to have my son tell you about the room, but I can see he's not here.” The director of Insomnia's Little Wonders, Mr. Regis Lucis Caelum, explained. "Have to keep him on his toes after all." He smiled, the new parent easily returning a smirk of his own. "Ignis, where is my boy?"

"Lunch, sir." Ignis answered as he removed the child from the built in highchair at the table and placed him on the floor with the toys.

As he turned to give his full attention, Ignis was immediately struck by how tall the visiting parent was. Taller than himself, which wasn't all that common of an occurrence. The next thing he noticed, which was probably rude of himself if he were honest, was the scar that ran down the left side of his face. However he had little time to ponder over it as the dashing good looks soon took precedence in his mind. The thoughts crossed his mind all at once to meld together into one jumbled mess as he went over to the doorway. All Ignis could do was hope that his interest hasn't been expressed too blatantly across his face.

"Ah, I suppose it is that time…" Regis said as he took in the presence of one of the daycare's floater employees. "Ignis," he started again. "This is Mr. Gladiolus Amicitia. He's considering Insomnia's Little Wonders for his daughter so we're taking a tour. She would fall under your age group so I brought him by so you could tell him how things work in your room.”

“Right.” Ignis nodded, returning to his typical professional self. “Well, since it's lunch time, we have set meals that the daycare provides daily, however if you don't want your daughter to eat anything specific or none of the menu food at all, we also can give her baby food or a bottle per your request.” Ignis took note that the man’s eyebrows raised ever so slightly as he started talking. If he were to guess, his accent was probably a bit of a surprise. Most people didn't expect someone with such a heavy Tenebrean dialect to be working with children.

“We follow feeding regimens as provided by you, and are more than willing to make dietary accommodations. Be it due to an allergy or introducing new foods.”

The taller man opened his mouth and blinked once before his brain seemed to finally catch up.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, that's good. Uh, she doesn't have any restrictions or anything. She eats pretty much everything. Little food dude.” He chuckled. “She still does formula though.”

Ignis gave a smile in return and nodded.

“Of course. When you drop her off you can tell us when she last ate and we'll be sure to feed her a bottle the next time you instruct.

“We also do regular diaper checks every two hours and encourage friendly interaction between all other children in the room. We do play with them ourselves as well, be it with the toys, singing songs, or reading books, but we also work with them to help them reach their developmental milestones like walking.”

“Hey, that sounds great.” Mr. Amicitia smiled.

“Let's see, what else?” Ignis thought aloud. He crossed his arms and tapped his chin with a finger as he ran through a mental list of things to tell the new man. “Since they're so young we don't have TV or outside time, so the children are in this room for the day.”

Ignis was quiet again as he thought more.

"We count, work on animal sounds and names, the names of our friends, sign language-"

"Sign language!" The parent said with raised brows.

"Oh, yes, we teach them simple signing to easier communicate. Like more, all done, and eat."

"That's amazing!"

"It's always fun to see parents get excited when their child gets the hang of it." Ignis smiled. He'd had plenty of parents come in in the morning telling of their excitement and joy when their baby started signing at dinner the night before.

“I'm afraid that's all I can think of.”

“No, no, that was good! Definitely a lot of good information!”

“Do you have any questions? Perhaps I can tell you more that I'm simply forgetting.”

“I have to bring in her diapers and stuff right?”

“Yes. Diapers; wipes; any diaper creams for rashes; formula; bottles, at least a couple that will stay here for use; any baby foods you'd like her to have if she won't be eating our foods. We do have a parent who brings in homemade mashed fruit and vegetable mixtures for their child. Oh, spare clothes of course. And a pacifier or three if she still uses them.”

“Okay, that sounds good.”

The larger man nodded as he looked around the room behind Ignis. The floater that was taking Noctis' place had finished cleaning off the faces of the remaining babies that had eaten and was working on cleaning the food covered table.

“Yeah, sounds good.” Gladiolus said while looking to Regis.

“Perhaps you'd care to see the rest of the facility?” The owner asked.

“Yeah, of course! Lead the way!” As the two made their way down the hall, Ignis turned his gaze to the room.

It hadn't been ideal that Noctis wasn't around to meet the potential new parent, but it's not like there was much to recap to the younger male anyways. The parent hadn't brought his child or anything, which few did. But meeting both teachers seemed like the best situation if you were to ask Ignis.

By the time Noctis did come back from his break, the whole encounter had completely slipped Ignis' mind.

**xXx**

It had been a little over a week after the man’s initial tour. Ignis had since forgotten him. Many people came in for tours and either chose a different daycare or ended up in a different room than Ignis’. It wasn't uncommon for the tours to stop at his room and have a short conversation about how the daycare ran. Ignis’ door was one of two that were required to stay open--the rooms being a designated shelter room for inclement weather--which made stopping for a tour easier than stopping at the other rooms with closed doors. The 6 to 12 month olds were just starting to gain mobility and the beginnings of socializing sounds so they made for good examples of the types of interactions that can go on between teacher and child anyways.

It was early in the morning on a Wednesday when the man returned, a small dark haired girl in his arms.

“Morning!” He offered with a charming smile. Ignis paused, honestly caught off guard by such a beautiful smile, before returning it. He was reminded of their meeting before, with such dashing good looks how could he not? He wore a black tracksuit and had a navy blue backpack, presumably full of his daughter’s things for the room. Ignis came over to the gate to welcome them.

“Good morning, Mr. Amicitia?" Ignis asked with a slight lilt. While he knew who the man was, it only felt right to double check.

"Uh, yeah! Gladiolus Amicitia. But I just go by Gladio." He said with a small shrug. “And this is Calytrix. She goes by Cal."

“Hello Cal,” Ignis greeted softly. “How are you doing today?” He tilted his head as he lowered himself enough to be on her level.

Cal held onto her dad’s jacket tightly as she stared hard at Ignis.

“She can be shy at first.” Gladio chuckled.

“Of course. Would you like to come in for a minute to help her adjust? The first few days can be a bit hard.”

“Uh, yeah actually, that'd be great.”

Ignis took the bag Gladio had been holding and brought it over to the counter where everything would be stored. Gladio, after removing his shoes outside of the room, easily stepped over the baby gate in the doorway and followed after Ignis.

“Cal’s shelf will be here,” Ignis explained as he patted a door on the line of cabinets above the counter. “All her things will be color coded with dark pink tape like on her board here.” On the door was a small dry erase board outlined in the aforementioned tape with her name on it. Ignis opened the cabinet door to reveal the empty shelf. “Here is where we'll put her spare clothes, bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers, and dirtied clothes from the day should she have any.” Gladio nodded as Ignis opened the bag and started to remove Calytrix’s things. “Her formula as well.” Ignis added as he took notice of the container.

“Have you seen the menu for this week?” He then asked, being on the subject of her food.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, she can have everything. She doesn't have any allergies that I know of but she's already tried a lot of different foods. She's not a picky eater.” Gladio chuckled at the end.

Ignis smiled as he placed the bag’s contents on the counter. He immediately put the spare clothes on the shelf as he wouldn't be able to put tape on them to label them as hers. Everything else would have to wait for a minute.

“If you would look at her board for me,” he started as he closed the cabinet door. “I got her paperwork a few days ago and wrote down her eating schedule based on what you put. Four ounces every three hours, and all school foods yes?”

“Yeah, that looks right.” Gladio confirmed.

“Excellent.” Ignis turned to face the two and looked to Calytrix again. “Would you like to join our friends and play?”

There were only three other children in the room at the current time. Crowe, a rather tall for her age girl with brown hair that lay flat on her head; Libertus, a chubby boy with a bowl cut of brown hair; and Luche, a boy with light brown hair that watched the newcomers closely.

Ignis introduced each child and turned to Calytrix for her opinion. She still clung to her father's jacket, now laying her head down on his chest as she took in the other children.

“Hey Cal, doesn't that look like fun?” Her father asked as he bounced her just slightly in his arms. He squatted down and attempted to place her on the floor, but the child continued to cling to his jacket. Now stomping her feet and whining.

“Come on baby, it's all right!” Gladio pulled her away from him till the fabric of his jacket slipped from her grip. Turning her around to face the other children and toys, he sat her on the ground and grabbed a rattle. “See, hey, it's just like at home!”

Calytrix began crying large tears trailing down her face as she sat. Gladio's forced cheer dropped and was replaced with worry and disappointment. He picked her back up and held her to his chest.

“She doesn't really leave my side.” He explained as he rocked her. “My dad or sister will usually watch her for me so she's got a really small social circle.”

“A bit of separation anxiety.” Ignis said softly as he watched the small girl bury her face in her dad's jacket, deep inhales making her back jump as she tried to calm herself.

“For sure… but I swear she's super funny and confident. Once she warms up she'll be amazing. And you'll make lots of friends huh?” Gladio looked down at Cal's slightly red face as she pulled back from her hiding spot. She took a deep breath that shook her body with the effort.

“Aw, baby.” Gladio cooed. He held her against his chest again and rocked back and forth on his feet.

“I hate to say it, but the likelihood of her crying when you leave will be rather high.” Ignis said sympathetically.

“Y-yeah, I know.” Gladio said with a small, forced smile. “Best to just bite the bullet I guess, huh?”

Ignis shrugged a shoulder in way of agreement and offered another sympathetic smile. He understood most parents had a rather hard time dropping their children off at a daycare for the first time. Especially if it was their first child. Which, Ignis thought it was safe to assume that Calytrix was probably Gladio's first.

The large man crouched down again to sit his daughter on the floor. Once seated, he patted his daughter on her back as he grabbed a toy in front of her. In a poor attempt to distract her, Gladio cooed and tried to show her how amazing and fun the toy was. After no success he sat the toy in front of her and stood up, backing up a couple steps from the once again crying baby.

“I'm sorry baby girl, but daddy has to go.” Gladio said as he held his hands up in surrender. He backed up towards the door and watched sadly as his daughter slowly turned around and watched him, her mouth turned down in the most pitiful expression as her crocodile tears ran down her face. “I'm sorry!” Gladio practically pleaded.

“Don't worry, I'll take good care of her. We'll be happy and playing in no time.” Ignis smiled as he moved over to the new addition to the room. Gladio nodded, concerned look still in place as he stepped over the baby gate and into the hall.

Ignis tried to soothe Calytrix as she continued to watch her father but she was having none of it. Her sobs continued as she started to crawl over to the gate to reach her father. Gladio quickly put his shoes back on and offered one last small awkward wave at Ignis and blown kiss at his daughter before quickly leaving.

Calytrix made it all the way to the gate where she slowly pulled herself up and proceeded to cry into the hallway.

“Calytrix,” Ignis called out to her from the middle of the room. “Cal!” The baby turned to look at him over her shoulder, losing her balance and falling on her bottom as she continued to cry. She turned to face the hall again and Ignis sighed. It certainly wouldn't do him or the Moogle room next door any good if she continued to cry into the hallway.

Ignis rose from his spot on the floor and went over to Calytrix, squatting down next to her and holding out a hand.

“Come now, daddy will be back, I promise. Wouldn't you like to play with your new friends?” Ignis tried.

Cal looked at him as he spoke, her face now red with the efforts of her tears, and let out short bursts of cries as she took sharp inhales inbetween.

“Now, now,” Ignis soothed. He picked the girl up and moved away from the door, more towards the children in the center of the room. “Everything is all right. Daddy will come back, you're okay.” He swayed from side to side as he rocked the girl in his arms.

The man was very well aware how most children tended to struggle with being separated from their parents, let alone being in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. Soothing a frightened child was not an unfamiliar concept. The first few days were always hard, and it was all you could do to hold them and comfort them. Ignis knew he needed to build trust with each child and to build it relatively quickly so they felt safe as soon as possible.

“You're all right.” Ignis cooed as he continued his swaying. Calytrix had since laid her head down on his shoulder and eased up on her crying. Now having small bouts of silence in between her stretches of sobs.

“Hey.” Came a dull greeting from the doorway, followed by the sound of something hitting the baby gate. "Ow."

Ignis could help the smirk that crossed his face at the tell tale sound of the plastic barrier being kicked again. He turned to see the lead teacher had arrived for the day. Calytrix took notice too, as shown by the start up of her crying again.

“Ugh, was hoping that wasn't us.” Noctis complained as he made his way towards the back of the room to sit his bag down. He had heard the child's periodic cries from down the hall as he entered the building.

“Noct.” Ignis scolded over Calytrix's cries. “This is her first day, of course she's going to be upset.”

“Well duh, I've never seen her before.” Noctis deadpanned. Ignis sighed and continued his swaying and bouncing.

For a lead teacher, Noctis often seemed too disconnected with the children. Though he more than made up for it when it came to actually caring and interacting with them. He cared about the kids, but with how nonchalant he tended to be around them, one would guess otherwise.

Calytrix laid her head back down on the man's shoulder and held tightly to his shirt. Ignis had to admit, she had a rather strong grip for such a small child. She held on as if she were afraid he would let her go or drop her. Perhaps it was her fear and unease making her hold on so tightly.

After several minutes of silence, save for the occasional shuddering inhales, Ignis tried to pull the baby girl away from his chest enough so he could see her face. She sat back rather willingly and looked around the room for the first time. The large amber eyes seemed to scan and take in every detail before landing on the pile of toys in the middle of the room. Ignis watched as she stared at them and her other playmates before looking back up and around the room again. She opened and closed her mouth a couple times, swallowing before turning her gaze to Ignis and letting out a deep sigh.

“Are we all right now?” The lead asked softly. “Would you like to play with the others?” He gently sat Calytrix on the floor and gave her a couple different small toys.

At first the dark haired girl sat and watched Crowe as she violently shook a rattle, and then Libertus who was heavily focused on the several linked plastic rings he held. She looked at the toys in front of her and sighed again before wiping the tears from one eye with the back of her hand. Ignis couldn't help the bittersweet smile that crossed his face at the action. Seeing a kid so young wipe their own face so delicately, especially after essentially having a breakdown, was funny but also sad. Noctis’ soft chuckle confirmed Ignis wasn't the only one feeling this way.

Calytrix eventually picked up a square plastic block and fiddled with it as she occasionally looked back up at her playmates. Ignis let out a soft sigh and returned to the counter that still held all of Cal's unlabeled items. He started pulling out all the premade name labels and getting her colored tape ready.

“So who's this? Cal?” Noctis drew out the name as he leaned against the counter next to him.

“Calytrix. Cal for short.”

“Well I got the nickname right.” Noctis shrugged before letting out a yawn. Noctis managed to look exhausted all throughout the day, no matter what time he came in. “How old is she?”

Ignis was quiet for a moment as he cut strips of colored tape and placed it and the corresponding name labels on Calytrix's bottles. He knew Noctis had known about her joining their room, but him having forgotten didn't exactly surprise him.

Noctis was the lead teacher, but he was more of a lead in training. While he had overall say with what went on in the room, he would often turn to Ignis for his opinion, treating him more as an equal than an assistant. It was true that the only reason he had the title was because his dad owned the daycare, but he had put in his time as an assistant and was more than capable of taking on the workload. If only he would show just a little more initiative.

“Seven months. Her birthday is in July.”

Noctis nodded again and remained silent. He eventually moved to sit on the floor with the kids and play with them while Ignis finished labeling Cal's things.


	2. Chapter 2

The first hour saw Cal sitting quietly and watching her new playmates, them conveniently leaving her alone in the meantime. The second hour was much the same with the exception of a couple other children being dropped off. Luche and Nyx had immediately gone for the toys, also ignoring Cal as she still held onto her block. Eventually breakfast had come and all the children that were able to eat it were placed at the table.

Noctis helped Ignis gather Libertus, Crowe, Nyx and Cal; the last willingly raising her arms up to the black haired male as he reached down to get her. Cal sat in her chair and watched the other three babies as they squealed and slapped their hands on the table in excitement. Noctis gave the kids their corresponding cups and went back to the remaining babies on the floor to entertain them while Ignis gave out breakfast.

Cal had sat and stared at her food at first, glancing at the others at the table. Ignis started to worry that Cal may not be willing to eat due to her new surroundings and nerves, but was quickly proven wrong as she took a handful of the cut up pieces of pancake and shoved them in her mouth, a small hum of appreciation leaving her as she chewed.

“Yummy?” Ignis asked her as he smiled. He was glad she was already beginning to adjust. That, and the fact that she had genuinely hummed her approval of her food, made it so Ignis couldn't help but be happy for her.

Calytrix looked up to Ignis and smacked her lips as she finished chewing. Another handful of pancake went into her mouth and she hummed again, this time looking to her green eyed caretaker as she did it.

“Mmm, yummy!” Ignis cooed at her.

Behind him Noctis silently rolled his eyes. The baby talk was enough to give him second-hand embarrassment half the time, but he left Ignis to himself. Afterall, it's not like the raven haired male could say he didn't do it himself sometimes. Ignis just did it a lot more.

After sitting with a few of her new friends, and them reaching over and touching her without permission, Calytrix was more willing to play and interact with them. She sat with one of the multiple rattles on the floor and fiddled with it absentmindedly as she watched the others. Noctis sat on the floor near her after finishing cleaning off the table. He figured sitting by her was the least he could do since she was new and still nervous.

Calytrix didn't stay by her other caretaker for long though before she slowly got on her hands and knees in preparation to crawl. After watching for another minute or so, she finally crawled over to where Pelna and Axis were laughing together.

Pelna stood next to a bouncer, one hand holding himself up as the other held a rattle. He smiled brightly as he shook the toy vigorously, laughing once he had stopped shaking it. Axis was looking up at him from the floor, joining in the laughter. The scene was cute enough on its own, but seeing Cal head over to make her own attempt at interacting with her new friends made things all the cuter.

Cal held out the rattle she had been holding upon reaching the other two. Pelna paused his flailing to stare at her. She held the toy out to him before pulling it back to herself and shaking it. Pelna let out a small laugh and shook his own in return. Cal smiled and repeated her action, this time doing it for a longer duration as Pelna joined her. Axis watched as they both laughed before he too joined in.

Noctis stood and moved to lean against the counter next to Ignis.

“Looks like she's doing pretty good.” Noctis commented.

Ignis turned around from the bottle he had been making. His eyes quickly scanned the room before landing on Calytrix happily laughing with the other two.

“Good.” Ignis smiled as he turned back. “I'm glad she was able to adjust so quickly. Her father did say she would be 'amazing’ once she warmed up.”

“What does that mean?” Noctis asked with a confused frown.

“I'm not sure, really. Perhaps she's a rather happy baby. He did say she was funny.”

“After earlier? I don't know. Sounds like she definitely knows how to cry.”

Ignis shook his head fondly before handing over the bottle he'd been making. Noctis left to feed the specified child and Ignis moved to do the dishes.

The assistant truly was glad that Calytrix had grown so comfortable so fast. Getting a child to adjust to new surroundings and complete strangers without the support of a parent could be incredibly difficult. It definitely wasn't a one day change. Calytrix however had managed to have the quickest turn around Ignis had ever seen. Before, she had a death grip on her father's jacket and screamed when he took his leave. Now she was making her way around the room of her own accord and interacting with the other children.

**xXx**

Ignis was uncertain how much time had passed--doing something as monotonous as the dishes led his mind to often wonder-- before a long high pitch squeal sounded behind him. He turned, never hearing any of his children make such a sound before.

“Who was that?” He asked Noctis, even though he was certain he already knew the culprit.

“Uuh,” Noctis was staring at Cal with raised brows. The small child was sitting on the floor with a toddler's version of a fidget cube. Her own brows were raised in interest as she fiddled with the cube. She took a deep breath and let out another long squeal, never looking up. She wasn't loud about it this time, no, it was a rather soft noise. Just incredibly high pitched.

“Well then.” Ignis said in acceptance. That was something he was going to have to get used to. And get used to it he did. Ignis and Noctis both quickly learned that Calytrix squealed when she was incredibly happy or excited. And she was happy and excited most of the time.

By the time lunch had passed Calytrix was a completely different child. The loud sobs from earlier were nothing but a distant memory as she now crawled around the room faster than the kids that could walk, squeals of delight echoing off the walls seemingly non-stop.

“Now I know why her cries were so loud.” Noctis said over one squeal. “She doesn't cry all the time, she does that!”

“I suppose I'd rather hear that than crying though.” Ignis sighed.

Noctis ran a hand down the side of his face and turned around to lean against his hands on the counter. The girl's unceasing squeals had drained the young man of his energy. Not surprising to Ignis. Cal had a lot of energy for one so young. Not only did she seemingly speed crawl everywhere and constantly emit high pitch sounds, but she also was rather keen of climbing on her new baby friends and making room for herself. Normally Ignis would only have to worry about such actions from Crowe, Luche, or Nyx, but Cal gave the first two a run for their gil. She was almost as bad as Nyx when he wanted to sit in a bouncer seat but another baby was in it.

Ignis hated to say it, but the last thing he wanted was another Nyx or Crowe to chase around, and somehow Calytrix seemed to be a mixture of both.

“She just keeps going.” Noctis said in slight disbelief, still facing the counter. Ignis had to admit, the day was half over and not once did she seem to slow down or show any sort of exhaustion. It was incredibly hard to rock the other children to sleep while one squealed every time something made her laugh. Hard, and annoying.

“When is her dad supposed to be here?” Noctis asked weakly.

“I'm not sure.” Ignis said with a slight shake of his head. He hadn't bothered to ask the man. He sometimes figured it was rude to ask the parent when they would return for their child. Like it gave off the impression that he didn't really want to watch them. “She was dropped off at 7:30.”

Noctis let out a heavy sigh in response. You couldn't always go by an eight hour work day as a gauge for when the kids would be picked up. They themselves worked four 10 hour days a week. Assuming Calytrix would be picked up at 3:30 or even 4:30 was a guess at most.

“Now, now Noct, at least she's happy.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“It'll fade into the background soon enough.”

Soon enough ended up being about an hour later. After many shushes and whispered pleas for Cal to be quiet, she eventually did fall silent. But not in the way the two teachers would have imagined.

“...Where's Cal?” Noctis asked after he realized how quiet it had grown. They had managed to get six of the other kids asleep, leaving Cal and Nyx to be the only ones awake. Cal had slowly gotten quieter as time went on, but now she was completely silent.

Noctis looked to Ignis, who was doing the dishes, then back to the room. All he could see was Nyx, crawling around and talking to himself as he waved a toy cup. Ignis turned to look, mild panic filling him as he too couldn't find Cal.

Noctis moved around the room to check behind different things. The rocking chair, under the table. Lucky for him, he didn't have to look too much as Calytrix was found on her belly partially behind one of the standing table toys.

“Geez…” Noctis said in exasperation. The teachers’ view of the child had been obscured by the toy, leaving nothing but one socked foot visible from where they had originally been standing.

“I see her.” Ignis sighed out, noticing her foot. “What is she doing?”

Noctis let out a laugh as he bent forward to examine the child.

“Get this, she's asleep.”

“Asleep? Just like that?”

Another huff of laughter left the raven haired male.

“Right there!”

Ignis shook his head and let out a small laugh. Collecting himself, he turned back to continue the dishes.

“Out so suddenly.” He said mostly to himself.

“No way. She was running around here crazy just a few minutes ago.”

“Goes until she drops?”

“I guess.”

Noctis carefully picked up the child in an attempt to not wake her. He moved her to her bed and slowly laid her down. Not once did she stir.

“She's knocked, man.”

“ _Noct_ out?” Ignis joked.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Noctis said dryly. It was a massive relief that the child had finally gone down. Not only did she need a nap, as she hadn't had one at all so far, but now they only had one kid to put to sleep, and once he was down, that meant they could play on their phones.

“Hell yeah.” Noctis smiled as he picked up Nyx and moved to sit in the rocking chair. Without having to explain his unnecessary expletive, Ignis knew the younger male was excited to be able to get on his phone and play King's Knight.

Ignis let out a sigh and shook his head fondly. He only had a couple more dishes to do and he himself could enjoy some free time as well. Afterall, the number of times Ignis has had all his babies asleep at the same time could probably be counted on two hands. His room wasn't like the higher up ones. There was no scheduled nap time to his children. In his opinion, and many others, they were much too young to get all of them on the same sleep schedule. Most of the kids needed two naps throughout the day. For some, that happened around 8 am. For others, that ended up being between 10 and 11 am. Afternoon nap worked about the same. Different times for different kids. And it just wasn't worth the rushed effort of getting them all down at once for only 30 minutes of phone time. The babies hardly slept longer than that. Sometimes Ignis thought back to the last group of kids he had. They all liked to sleep. He missed the 1-2 hour nap times.

Calytrix seemed to be one of the long nappers luckily enough. She had ended up sleeping for an hour and some odd minutes, remaining seemingly comatose while her friends slowly woke up and grew noisy.

Noctis had joked on whether or not they needed to check on her at one point. Having such a long sleeper seemed weird and unusual as of recent days.

Eventually though, Calytrix joined the world of the living again. Not without taking a second to come back to herself though. The dark haired child had simply sat in one spot with a blank expression as she watched the other kids play. Ignis had started to grow worried that she might slip back into her nervous personality from the start of the day, but he was proven wrong as she slowly regained her confidence and continued her loud and excited playing from before.

Ignis was glad to see that even after falling asleep and waking up in a technically still unfamiliar place, Calytrix was still able to be comfortable and enjoy herself.

“Calytrix, no!” Noctis called from across the room. He quickly made his way over to where Cal was currently laying ontop of Luche, not a care in the world. “We don't climb on our friends!”

Perhaps she was a little too comfortable. Ignis often found himself wondering where such behaviors ended up originating from. Did they have older siblings or relatives that climbed on them? Perhaps pets at home that their parents allowed them to climb on. Either way, it wasn't much appreciated at the daycare.

The first kid to leave the daycare was Crowe. Her dad always picked her up at 3:18, almost on the dot. After that it was a bit of a guessing game. One that Noctis and Ignis occasionally played. They could typically guess that Pelna would be the next to go. He almost always left at 4:30. But today they were met with a bit of a surprise.

“Knock, knock.” A familiar gruff voice said from the doorway.

Ignis turned from where he was currently folding laundry to see Gladio standing in the hall behind the baby gate.

“Hello,” Ignis smiled. He stopped what he was doing to find Noctis standing up with Calytrix in his arms, having just pulled the baby girl off another one of her friends.

“Gladio?” Noctis asked with clear disgust.

“Hey Princess, how's the babysitter life?” Gladio smirked.

“What are you doing here? Don't tell me you spawned.” Noctis said with a grossed face as he sat Calytrix down.

“Noct.” Ignis scolded.

“Believe it or not I did-”

“Who?”

Gladio put a hand towards the top of his head and wiggled one finger directly up. Noctis gaped as he looked from the large man to Calytrix, her being the only other child with her hair directly up in a ponytail that Noctis hadn't met the parent of.

“No way!”

“Cal.” Gladio called as he casually leaned against the doorway. The child turned at the sound of her name and spotted her dad. She squealed loudly and threw the stacking cup she had been holding before quickly crawling towards her dad. Gladio looked up from his speedy daughter to see Noctis’ reaction. His gaping mouth and frown brought a chuckle out of Gladio as he leaned down to pick up his daughter.

“Should've known. She's a bully, just like her dad!” Noctis said with crossed arms.

“Noct!” Ignis scolded again. He quickly looked to Gladio to explain, ignoring the fact that the two clearly knew each other.

“Ah, was she?” Gladio cringed, looking at the other teacher.

“Well, she most certainly isn't the same child that you left with us this morning.” Ignis offered. “She climbed on a few of the other children.”

“Cal,” Gladio groaned. “You can't do that!”

The baby girl laughed loudly and slapped at her dad's chest in happiness.

“I heard you'd had a kid. I didn't realize she was this old already.” Noctis remarked as he looked at Cal.

“Yup. Eight months here in a week or so."

“So,” Ignis started after a slight pause in the conversation. “You two know each other?”

“Gladio's dad runs the security company that we use here. My dad has been friends with his since they were in high school or something.” Noctis explained. “We kinda grew up together.”

“I see.” Ignis said with a raise of his brows.

“Yeah, made sense to put Cal here since I knew the place and it's security measures were good. Plus the little discount I get.” Gladio continued with a winked.

Ignis’ heart seemed to pause at the gesture.

"Huh. Ignis and dad seemed to have forgotten to tell me you were coming here." Noctis said sarcastically as he moved over to the doorway.

"Apologies." Ignis deadpanned. "Maybe if you read her paperwork you'd have known."

"So what, you gonna work here now? _Discount_ and all that." Noctis asked, completely ignoring the fact that Ignis was right.

“Not happening.” Gladio scoffed.

“Your dad still forcing you to join him?”

“Eh, a little. He's laid off since I started talking about putting Cal here. Think he thinks that means I'm gonna join the company or something. I can keep Cal around at Shields, but if I started working for him then she'd need to be here so I could actually do stuff. The gym doesn't need me wandering around the floor all the time so we're able to hang out at the desk a lot. The security stuff? Not so much.”

That explained Gladio's attire then. Ignis deduced that he dressed so casually because he worked at a gym. 'Shields,’ apparently. No need to wear a business suit to a place where you worked out.

Noctis nodded and looked away. The conversation seemed to be hitting a lull. It was easy enough to gather that even though the two grew up together, they hadn't seen much of or caught up with each other in a long while.

“Sure you don't wanna work here?” Noctis asked suddenly.

“You serious?” Gladio asked in disbelief. “Me and kids don't mix.”

“Says the guy _with_ a kid?”

“Listen, my kid is different then these guys. I know how mine is and how to handle her.”

“Dude, no one knows how to handle kids that aren't theirs.”

“Yeah, not happening.” Gladio shrugged off the suggestion, clearly putting an end to that topic. Noctis physically shrugged in response. He wasn't very serious in his offer. He knew the large man would never go for it. Gladio then turned to Ignis.

“How'd she do today? Besides climbing on everyone.”

Ignis would later realize that the awkward little smile that the father gave would imprint itself in his memory. For now though…

“Well, after a couple hours she definitely warmed up.”

“Not without screaming first.” Noctis cut off.

“Yeah,” Gladio drew out, looking at his babbling daughter. “She's got some lungs on her.”

Ignis was trying not to lose his complete composure at the fact that Noctis was choosing to be absolutely rude and so forward to a parent. Even if he knew who they were. Gladio seemed awfully laid back though.

“But she ate okay? No problems other than climbing on people?” Gladio asked.

“No, she ate exceptionally well. She finished all her bottles and had over an hour long nap.” Ignis informed with a smile.

“Hey, good job Cal.” Gladio smiled at his daughter.

“Does she usually like, just pass out?” Noctis asked as he squinted. “Because she was loud and crazy and then suddenly was just knocked on the floor. Like face down and everything.”

“Yeah I just let her go till she drops. Normally she goes down on her own fairly well, but there are some days where she just refuses to sleep. That's when you gotta rock her and make her nap.”

“When does she typically sleep?”

Gladio let out a slow puff of air as he thought.

“Ah, usually around one in the afternoon. She doesn't really do morning naps unless she didn't sleep well the night before or if she's had a lot going on that morning. Then she usually goes down for a nap in the afternoon around three. Her morning naps only last like 30 minutes though. I don't really want them going on an hour. Knocks her sleep schedule off bad.” Gladio explained. He quickly looked to Ignis, mild panic on his face. “I know 30 minutes isn't nearly long enough of a nap, it's just, she has so much energy and runs like, non-stop.”

“Right, of course.” Ignis nodded. No, 30 minutes most certainly wasn't long enough for a nap, but half the babies in the room didn't sleep any longer than that anyways. Ignis wouldn't judge Gladio on that one.

“Dude, no one in here sleeps more than 15 minutes anyways.” Noctis scoffed.

“Noctis I swear.” Ignis muttered.

Gladio laughed. Not only at Ignis’ frustration, but also at the terrible news that nap time wasn't very long.

“That must suck.”

“Yeah, no shit.” Noctis lowered his eyebrows as he caught himself swearing. “I mean, no duh.” He looked to Ignis and gave a half hearted shrug.

“Thank you for the effort I suppose.” Ignis sighed.

“Potty mouth.” Gladio smirked.

“Like you're any better!” Noctis fired back.

“Hey, I'll stop swearing once she starts talking. It's the parent rule. Swear while they're babies and can't repeat.”

“I hear you there.”

Even though Noctis and Gladio had been apart for who knew how long, the two were still able to somewhat fall back into place as if it had only been a few days. Such was evident by the fluidity of the fist bump Noctis had gone in for in response to the… _swearing_ while the children were still young. To each their own, Ignis supposed.

“Well, glad she had a good day. Glad you guys got to see her and her… self.” Gladio was looking to his daughter who was staring down the hall behind them, watching the people as they came to pick up their children. “All right moogle, you ready to go?” He tickled at her side, ‘causing her to smile and quickly whip her head around to face everyone. “Can you say bye to everyone?”

Noctis and Ignis both waved their hands in a goodbye, one of the most common ways children did it in Ignis’ experience. Cal just smiled and stared at them before excitedly slapping at her dad's broad chest.

“Okay, okay.” Gladio grunted as he pulled his face away from the attacking hands. “Thanks again you guys. We'll see you tomorrow.”

“Of course.” Ignis said with a nod. “Have a good evening.”

“You too.” Gladio gave a wave and smiled as he left.

“Man. I had no idea Cal was his.” Noctis commented after they were gone.

“Her last name meant nothing?” Ignis asked incredulously.

“I didn't even pay attention to her last name."

"I'm starting to wonder how good of a lead you'll really make."

"Hey, so long as we both know what we're doing it's fine right?"

Ignis shook his head at that. He can't say he disagreed though. They both got along just fine and their room was never in chaos. They were clearly doing something right.

“She looks just like him too.” Noctis started again. “Dark hair, crazy energy… crazy in general.”

There was a momentary pause of silence. Ignis half expected Noctis to continue. Afterall, the two themselves had built a pleasant friendship in their time working together, and Noctis would occasionally come to Ignis with his problems or tell him about parts of his life. So when the younger male stayed quiet, Ignis found himself wanting to know more.

“So you grew up together?” The lighter haired man asked.

“Yeah. Dads were friends for a long time. Stayed friends till now. I can remember playing with Gladio when I was a kid. But since he's like three years older than me, sometimes we didn't get along. He was freaking huge as a kid too. I mean, he's still huge. He's always been bigger than me so when we played he'd sometimes wanna do stuff I couldn't do. Like he'd climb trees and get real high, and I'd be hanging from somewhere at the bottom.” Noctis shrugged.

“My dad had told me when he was expecting a kid, and I texted him. Asked him if it was real. He was excited, and nervous, and all that. But we had barely been talking before then so I just kinda left things where they were.

“Was told when she was born. Never went to see her. Didn't really see a reason to, I guess.” Noctis was quiet again. “It's not like I have anything against him, Gladio's a great guy. He's my friend. It's just… I guess when I heard he was having a kid, I just, was sad.”

Ignis wasn't expecting to delve this deep into things, but he certainly wasn't about to tell Noctis not to share his feelings. The younger male was relatively closed off in that area, so Ignis would be sure to let him continue.

“Gladio starting a family meant that we probably wouldn't get to see each other anymore. Or, less than we already were. Like, we both were out of high school, and he's always been way more social than me, so he was off doing his own thing while I was still in school. Work and friends. Then him having a kid, it was like we really were on different levels. Him being older really clicked in that moment. I don't know.”

Ignis could only nod in response. He wasn't entirely sure what to say, if anything at all.

“But hey, now that his kid is here I can probably start things back up, right?” Noctis asked, not really expecting an answer.

“If it's any condolence, you two seemed to hit it off rather well, even with the lack of talking recently.”

Noctis stared off at the remaining kids in the room before nodding slowly.

“Yeah. We did.” A small smile crossed his face, and for that, Ignis was grateful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this ending probably wasn't much better than the ending of the last chapter but I swear I'm not always this bad. Honestly, the first half of this chapter was rough too but hey, I'm a bad writer and don't wanna fix it. Anyways, hope y'all are hype for Daddiolus and Ignis to have a nice little family!
> 
> Not sure how much of this is gonna take place in a daycare. I just keep thinking about kid characteristics that I encountered at my daycare and which ones Gladio's daughter would have or if Ignis and him had a kid, what they would be like. Put simply, I'm not sure how I want all this to go.
> 
> Author's Notes 2: I had previously lost all of my notes for which XV character was what real life baby I've cared for, so I had to do a lot of rewriting and ctrl+F. I think I have it all fixed now and know who is who!
> 
> Anyways, this chapter was already written so I just reread it and made some changes. Hopefully the next ones will be smoother because I don't know about you all, but these first two feel so choppy x.x


	3. Chapter 3

Ignis had Tuesdays off along with his weekends. Working 10+ hours a day gave him an extra day off during the week, along with a few hours of overtime on every check. So when he came back to work on Wednesday, Gladio of course had questions.

"I hope Noctis didn't scare you." Ignis joked after explaining their schedules.

"Nah, figure he's gotta know what he's doing. No, I was more worried that you quit after having to deal with Cal last week." Gladio grinned.

"I'd never. Cal is a good girl, aren't you?" Ignis asked the girl in her father's arms. Cal smiled and laid her head on her dad's chest.

"Oh, play it up kid." Gladio rolled his eyes. "So, 10 hours huh? 'S a lot for, what, like, nine kids? Gotta be stressful. I know Cal by herself ain't easy, let alone 10 more."

"It's eight kids, including Cal, but it certainly can be challenging some days. Though, I find it hard to ever hate my job." Ignis said somewhat distractedly. He turned to look at the few babies that were in the room this early. He truly did care for each and every one of them as if they were his own. Yes, even the hard headed ones.

"Hey, that's good!"

"Indeed."

There was a small pause of silence between the two before Gladio started up the conversation again.

"Uh, sorry if this is too forward but," Ignis immediately knew what was coming next and held back a chuckle. "Your accent, is it Tenebrae?"

"Yes." He answered with a small smile. Gladio was confident and forward, that much Ignis could tell. They'd only interacted for a few minutes every day during pick up and drop off, but the large man seemed to be relatively open about his personality so far.

"You from there?"

"Yes. My uncle adopted me and brought me here when I was 13 or so."

"Oh," Gladio raised his brows a little. "That's pretty neat. Do you remember it?"

"Yes, a lot really. I only moved nine years ago."

"Nine years? So you really haven't been here all that long."

"Not entirely."

"So, that makes you, what? 22?"

Ignis nodded in confirmation.

"And you're in charge of eight babies? Pretty impressive."

"Now, now," Ignis sighed with a small smile. "Young parents are a thing." Gladio scoffed at that.

"Not to eight babies though!"

"Mm, true." Ignis smiled.

"Really, it's great that you're able to do it. I think a lot of people would find it hard to do. I used to take Cal to work with me. I'm a personal trainer so it was easy enough when she was first born. Once she started getting around though, was a bit harder. Can't really workout or have a meeting with a client when you can hear your boss yelling at your kid for getting into everything." Gladio chuckled as he looked down at his daughter. "He said I could keep bringing her, but it was getting hard. Besides, with Mr. Caelum in charge, it was a pretty easy decision to put her here. Figured I didn't have much to worry about."

"That makes sense."

"Plus, I got a friend who brings her kid here. She swore up and down the place was great." He chuckled. Ignis cocked his head to the side.

"And what do you think so far?"

"I mean, Cal seems happy. That's all I can really ask for."

"She's definitely adjusted well. She's had an excellent transition."

"All right Cal!" Gladio cheered for his daughter. He bounced her around a little in his arms, a large smile crossing her face as she giggled. Ignis couldn't help but smile back.

"Okay small fry, I gotta go. I probably chatted your teacher's ear off."

"Nonsense. I only worry whether or not you'll be on time for work."

"Ah, yeah." Gladio sat Calytrix on the floor near the middle of the room so she could play with the toys there. "Boss doesn't care what time I show up. So long as I'm not making any clients wait or it isn't after eight. I prefer to get there earlier rather than later. Let's me get off earlier in the day. I'll always be here to get Cal around 3:30."

"She'll appreciate that." Ignis smiled.

"Bet you will too." Gladio grinned. "All right, I'm off!" He quickly stooped down to his daughter, placed his large hands on either side of her face, tilted her head up, and placed a kiss on her squished lips. "Bye Cal!" He straightened himself again before hurrying out of the room, afraid he may have set the stage for one of her infamous fits. Not without giving Ignis one last wave however.

Calytrix was unphased by her father leaving, choosing instead to watch him struggle to quickly put on his shoes before going back to the cow shaped musical toy she held. It wasn't surprising to see how well she had adjusted in such a short amount of time. The first couple days had been hard, but she quickly became her rambunctious self in no time at all. Now when her father dropped her off, she might become marginally upset before easily being distracted with a toy.

"It's probably harder for your dad to leave you than for you to leave him." Ignis said as he sat on the floor next to her.

Cal continued to ignore him as she fiddled with her toy. Ignis let his mind wonder as he only had a total of four kids so far, all of them content in that moment. He couldn't help but ponder about Cal's home life. He'd done it with every kid that had ever come through the room's door. Some kids clearly came from wealth, their parents putting them in well known name brands, while some you would see in the same outfit at least once a week. Ignis wasn't one to judge, afterall, babies are messy and surely it's just easier to grab the first clean thing off the laundry pile. It seemed it was only natural to wonder though, all the other teachers did it too, often times discussing their wonder allowed with each other.

Gladio seemed relatively easy to figure out, him being very willing to talk about Cal and even their lives. But there was still so much that Ignis didn't know. For example, he'd only met Gladio so far, even during the initial tour it had just been Gladio. He wondered what Cal's mother was like. Was she loud and confident like Cal and Gladio? Or was she soft, quiet, and reserved? Did she have dark hair too, or did Cal mainly take after her father in terms of looks? She did look like a tiny Gladio as it were. Either way, he was sure he would meet the woman in due time.

"Hey." Noctis yawned as he stepped over the baby gate, his foot hitting it as he failed to raise it high enough. "Ow."

"Look alive Noct." Ignis responded.

The day went as well as the others. Cal was as loud as ever, chaotic as ever. Between Nyx, Luche, Crowe, and Cal, the room seemed like it was in disarray half the time. Their only remotely calm children were Axis, Pelna, Libertus, and Petra. With a room divided down the middle of chaos incarnate and sweet little angels, their days were just as 50/50. Sometimes it could be relatively quiet, calm. Other times it was like the world itself was ending, and all the teachers could do was beg for lunch to come just a little bit early so they could plop the children in their seats and silence them with food.

Ignis would never say it aloud, but Noctis most certainly would, Nyx was the most challenging of them all. With a thin coverage of black hair and determined blue eyes, he seemed to have a never ending supply of energy, rarely going down for naps. And when he did, they tended to be 20 to 30 minutes at the most. One time, Ignis had only managed to get him down for 10 minutes. They were lucky his mother was such kind and understanding, herself having worked at a daycare in the past. Ignis still remembered her words on Nyx's first day.

"Please be good." She sighed, almost begged, Noctis would point out later. They hadn't taken it to mean much, just a parent wishing their child a good first day.

Much like Cal, save for all the crying, Nyx had proven to be a force to reckon with. He let no baby slow him down, taking what he wanted and making a path for himself as if the other children were mear obstacles. Speaking of obstacles, when they merged rooms at the end of the day with the younger babies--the Moogle room, ages six weeks to six months--Nyx had quickly proven just how capable and strong he really was. A baby of a meager four months had sat rocking in a swing, minding his own business. Ignis and the teacher of the Moogle room had their backs turned, one cleaning while the other handled the children. Once the other teacher had finished the dishes, she had turned to see Nyx sitting atop the four month old in the swing, looking for all the world like nothing was wrong. She exclaimed and quickly rushed over, pulling him off the smaller baby and scolding him. Even though the baby swing had been rocking on its own, Nyx had managed to climb into it all by himself.

Yes, Ignis and Noctis had learned quickly that Nyx was more than met the eye. Ever since that day he had managed to climb into the swing on two other separate occasions. Both times while sitting atop another baby. Noctis had actually witnessed him attempting to do it once. Grabbing the seat of the swing as it came towards him and preventing it from moving, Nyx would then pull himself up into a standing position before hiking his leg up high enough to get the leverage to pull himself in. It wasn't just limited to the swing though. He would also climb on top of the smaller babies in the bouncer chairs. Lucky for the teachers, these incidents happened few and far between. So long as they kept an eye on him when merging rooms anyways.

Next would have to be Crowe. She always had most of her brown hair pulled up into a ponytail atop her head, the rest hanging down in the back. Ignis could only dream of understanding what secrets lay beyond her brown eyes. Her thought process was a total enigma. Crowe had started walking early, very early. Around eight and a half months to be exact. Once she had figured it out, she had quickly switched to running. This was a problem when it came to her pacifier stealing. Yes, most of the babies stole each other's pacifiers, but most of them couldn't run. Crowe would often times steal pacifiers directly out of her friends' mouths, even though she never took to one personally. Once she was caught, she would smile and laugh, running away from whatever teacher was after her. It was funny, annoying, cute. All in one. But her thievery wasn't her only troublesome habit.

Crowe also tended to not want to eat her bottles. Moreso, she never ate them with Noctis. Ignis however, was another story. After managing to build a loving a bond with the baby, Ignis became the only one who could get her to eat her three ounce bottles.

"She's gonna starve if you ever take a day off." Noctis had said one day. Ignis had chuckled in response, but knew he was probably right. Crowe tended to smile and giggle rather than drink her bottles. Whatever Ignis had with her, managed to keep her quiet long enough to finally start getting empty bottles from her. Before, they were lucky if they could get one ounce in her before their "use within one hour" timer was up on the milk.

Ignis remembered one incident where he had to call Crowe's mother and inform her that there was only one pouch of frozen breast milk left for the day. She had said that if Crowe finished all three ounces of the bottle she currently had, she would run home and bring back more. That was the first day she had ever finished all three ounces.

"That little stink." Her mother had laughed once Ignis called her back. Ever since that day, Crowe had finished all of her bottles. But only with Ignis.

Next was Luche. The brown haired and blue eyed boy was really only trouble because of his biting. He tended to bite anytime someone tried to take his toys, which was very often. He even bit Crowe multiple times in one week, prompting an "investigation" of sorts. Was he targeting her or were they accidents? Of course they were accidents!

"She's not targeted, he bites everyone!" Noctis had said in slight irritation. Luche had even bitten another baby on the back, leaving a good mark, teeth indents and all. Ignis had to admit, it was frustrating having Regis come in and question them about the situation. They were well aware of how bad it was, they had to fill out accident report sheets almost daily. Just because the law said they could watch four babies per one teacher, didn't mean it was easy. The two of them couldn't keep their eyes on all eight babies all the time, especially with their extra duties around the room.

Finally though, Ignis had figured it out. Luche was simply bored. He noticed one day when the young baby had been playing with stacking cups. His blue eyes were heavily trained on the plastic, his little hands maneuvering and fitting the pieces together perfectly with an almost practiced ease, not stopping until he had all the cups within each other. So Ignis informed his parents. They too had felt terrible upon getting numerous accident report sheets. For each bite, the afflicted child got a sheet, and the injuree was given an "I hurt a friend" sheet. The parents were never told what child was hurt or which one had done the injury, but once your child kept getting the same paperwork over and over, it tended to make you feel bad or as if you were failing them.

"He's incredibly smart, he's just not being stimulated enough in here." Ignis had explained. And low and behold, once Luche was given more things to figure out with that big brain of his, the biting had stopped.

Calytrix was the last "troublesome" baby. While she tended to climb over the others like Nyx, her worst, or rather most annoying, trait were her squeals of happiness. Yes, they were glad that she was happy, and would rather have a happy squealing baby than a sad screaming one, but the high pitch squeal she always let out tended to be grating after a while. It had been very startling at first, still was if you had zoned out while doing a repetitive task. It was even worse when the infants in the Moogle room were napping. The walls weren't terribly thin, but you could still hear loud enough noises through them. It was no help with both baby room doors needing to remain open too.

Calytrix was also advanced for her age. She had already been pulling herself up on things, albeit rather wobbly. Ignis wondered if her dad realized that she was already a little ahead of the general curve.

Next would be their calm, or  _ calmer _ , babies. Axis was generally quiet, expressionless, but cried way too often. Tears often poured from his brown eyes, down his tanned cheeks. Noctis wasn't very shy in his slight dislike of the child, but Ignis couldn't exactly blame him. A baby that cried often wasn't fun to be around. They all had their favorites and not favorites, but that never got in the way of their care and safety.

If Ignis and Noctis were honest, they had no idea as to why Axis cried so much. It often started with him just sitting and minding his own business, watching the other babies as they played amongst each other. Shortly after, the crying began. Neither teacher remembered who figured it out, probably Ignis if they were honest, but finally, they had found a solution. They had a sort of small rug that they would lay out on the floor for the babies to play with. Shaped like a grey elephant with a stuffed, pillow-like head, one of the teachers had finally decided to lay Axis on it one day. With his pacifier in his mouth, head comfortably cradled, and a blanket draped over him, Axis had finally stopped crying. Ignis and Noctis never understood why Axis cried or why laying on the elephant rug made him stop, but they always had his makeshift bed ready for him when he came in. The only real problem was keeping the other babies from stealing his pacifier and starting the crying up again. And of course, they always left him alone until he was laying down and comfortable.

Next was Pelna. Pelna was a favorite of anyone who had ever taken care of him. Tiny for his age and a little more than peach fuzz of dark hair, he looked like a little old man. Pelna was the sweetest, more adorable baby Ignis had ever seen. Maybe it was because he was so much smaller than the others, the first percentile in height and fifth in weight. Or maybe it was his cute smile and cuddly ways. Whatever it was, one thing was for sure, he was one of Ignis' favorites.

It didn't help that Pelna seemed to have a sort of infatuation with Axis. Pelna would often times bring a toy to the other whenever he started crying, making sure he took it before going off to get more. It was the sweetest thing Ignis had ever seen. When Axis wasn't crying, Pelna would cock his head to the side and give the sensitive baby a cheesy grin. It was amazing to see such a young child clearly have an infatuation with the other. It did make Ignis happy though. It was good to know that Axis would have a little friend that would almost always be close by. Hopefully he would find comfort in such a kind soul.

Petra was a relatively sweet baby too. He had a round face, complete with chubby cheeks and a bubbly personality to go with it. His only "problem" was his severe case of stranger danger. If he didn't see you daily, he was terrified of you. Anytime a floater would come around to give bathroom breaks, Petra would cry and immediately beeline for Ignis' leg. Even the teachers from the Moogle room became just a little too distant when he moved up, and he would sometimes get nervous when they poked their heads in. Otherwise, he was just a cheesy, happy baby.

Last but not least was Liburtus. Liburtus was definitely Noctis' favorite. Ignis just couldn't figure him out. Any time he tried to interact with him, get him to smile or laugh, he got a blank stare. No matter what he did. Ignis had since given up on trying to get the boy to show any other expression. So long as Noctis could make him happy, it was fine. Liburtus was also the one whose mother was straight off the Tenebrae boat, a neat little fact that had excited Ignis when he first heard her accent.

Liburtus was a quiet kid for the most part, sometimes he let out a loud scream every now and again, usually when someone was bothering him or he wasn't getting his way with one of his friends, but his real troubles were with food. Liburtus would try and only eat the food he wanted, screaming and demanding more of one thing once it was gone. It was easy enough to tell him no and that he couldn't just eat his fruit. He needed to eat his veggies and the main dish too. Or, "No, Liburtus, you cannot just have cheese. You need to eat the cracker too!"

He eventually started eating all his food no problem, but the ease was short lived as he started to eat it all way too fast. Almost every day he had started shoving so much food in his mouth at once that he would choke and throw it all back up. Once Ignis and Noctis realized what was happening, they started giving him much smaller portions and giving him more once he had finished what he had. He would scream for more food, the second he had finished, but the screaming was prefered much more than him barfing everyday.

That made eight. Eight little bundles of joy. Or, mostly joy. Each child was so different, their little personalities shining through more and more each day. It amazed Ignis. He not only watched them grow and reach each milestone, but also watched them come into themselves and figure out who they were. Going from the stationary and stoic little newborns to the cheesy, silly, independent young toddlers was always an amazing process to watch.

"Who you thinkin' about?" Noctis asked teasingly.

"No one." Ignis deadpanned.

"Then why're you smiling?"

"Am I not allowed to get lost in my mind?"

"Specs, I told you to stay out of there."

"But if I'm having pleasant thoughts then it should be all right."

"Oh,  _ pleasant  _ thoughts?" The suggestive wiggle of Noctis' eyebrows made Ignis roll his own eyes. While he and Noctis were only a couple years apart in age, the younger was much more inclined to act his shoe size. Although it had become a welcomed change to Ignis' own well composed personality.

"Unlike you, I have more decency." Ignis smirked.

"Oh, you wound me." Noctis answered, dramatically placing the back of his hand to his forehead.

Noctis may have been an almost total opposite to his own personality, but he was a good teacher, one Ignis was more than happy to spend his time with. Between him and the kids, the days seemed to go by in good stride. With Cal joining the party and adding so much flair in such a short amount of time, Ignis was interested to see how she would do once she had spent more time among their daycare family. Would she always be this wild? Would she rub off on the others, or would they bring her down a little? No matter how things would go from here on out, Ignis was grateful for every moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just keep getting writer's block with everything I do! I'm doing my best! D:

**Author's Note:**

> Original Notes: Shout out to that poor page break of an ending. If I didn't abruptly end it this chapter would be going on forever.
> 
> So I work at a daycare and my friend brought up the concept of Ignis working at a daycare. Thus this was born. I spend the lulls in the day thinking about Ignis and Noctis having to take care of Gladio's daughter. (And subsequently falling in love with her dad but we'll get to that later.) So here, enjoy an AU I'm pretty sure no one expected or asked for but I'm doing it anyways because I thought about it for too long.
> 
> Fair warning, don't expect regular updates as I use a lot of inspiration from my days at work, but I am also very tired after work and thus don't write much afterwards.
> 
> Updated Notes: This was originally written, probably before December of 2018. I never posted it as I wanted to get a few chapters written up beforehand. Since then, a lot has changed, including me no longer working at the daycare this was originally modelled after. I now work at a MUCH different daycare (which I plan to incorporate at some point into this fic). I will do my absolute best to not be inconsistent with the details of this fic, but after rereading what I'd already had written and taking out TONS of inaccuracies even just between the first and second chapter, I can only say that I will do my best!
> 
> Author's Notes 2 the Electric Boogaloo: Okay I'm just gonna post this first chapter because I keep rereading it and editing it and my real life situation keeps changing so I really need to get on this xD


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